Shipping Companies Cause Congestion At Lagos Ports

Traffic congestion in and around the ports environment in Apapa, Lagos, is mainly caused by the activities of some shipping companies, according to P.M.NEWS exclusive findings.

It was revealed that the non-provision of holding bays by some of the shipping companies, including LANSAL, MSC, and CMA CGM, is the prime causative factor in the seemingly intractable gridlock in “port city” of Apapa and environs.

It was gathered that the Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC) is worst-hit by the traffic scourge, even as the situation is also affecting operations at the Lagos Port Complex(LPC).

Apart from Maersk Nigeria, no other shipping company has a holding bay for dropping empty containers; instead empty containers are stacked on top of trucks for days on the port access, thereby causing long hours of traffic jams on the ports access roads.

Rather than having holding bays, these shipping companies routinely ask the truck operators to proceed to the terminals to drop their containers, a situation which the terminal operators say does not encourage efficiency and productivity.

The concessionaires have said that they are not under any obligation to accept empty containers, saying that empty containers are only accepted when the shipping companies are ready to load them onto ships.

According to the terminal operators, if empty containers are accepted at will, it will come to a point where vessels berthing at the terminals with laden containers will not have the space to off-load their containers.

As result of the non-provision of holding bays by these shipping companies, operators informed newsmen that trucks laden with empty containers spend at least three to four days before dropping their containers at the ports terminals.

The operators noted that the situation has led to the rising cost of doing business at the nation’s ports.

Apart from the rising cost of doing business, the operators, especially the truck drivers, said the situation poses security threats to them as they are harassed by security agents, officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and social miscreants, popularly called area boys at night.

It would be recalled that truck operators, under the aegis of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), withdrew their services from the ports in Lagos two weeks ago, asking the shipping companies to provide holding bays where empty containers are dropped.